'Think of us like a coast guard,' pirates say

Somalis claim they are fighting illegal fishing, dumping

NAIROBI, Kenya – The Somali pirates who hijacked a Ukrainian freighter loaded with tanks, artillery, grenade launchers and ammunition said yesterday that they had no idea the ship was carrying arms when they seized it on the high seas.

“We just saw a big ship,” the pirates' spokesman, Sugule Ali, said in a 45-minute telephone interview. “So we stopped it.”

The pirates quickly learned, though, that their booty was an estimated $30 million worth of heavy weaponry, heading for Kenya or Sudan, depending on whom you ask.

Sugule expounded on everything from what the pirates wanted (“just money”) to why they were doing this (“to stop illegal fishing and dumping in our waters”) to what they had to eat on board (rice, meat, bread, spaghetti, “you know, normal human-being food”).

He said that so far, in the eyes of the world, the pirates had been misunderstood. “We don't consider ourselves sea bandits,” he said. “We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas. We are simply patrolling our seas. Think of us like a coast guard.”

The pirates who answered the call said they were speaking by satellite phone from the bridge of the Faina, the Ukrainian cargo ship that was hijacked about 200 miles off the coast of Somalia on Thursday.

Several pirates talked, but said that only Sugule was authorized to be quoted. Sugule said they were surrounded by U.S. warships, but he did not sound afraid. “You only die once,” Sugule said.

The San Diego-based guided-missile destroyer Howard and several other U.S. ships have surrounded the Faina off the central Somali town of Hobyo. The U.S. ships allowed the pirates to bring food and water on board, but not to take weapons off. A Russian frigate is on its way to the area.

Sugule said all was peaceful on the Faina, despite unconfirmed reports from maritime organizations in Kenya that three pirates were killed in a shootout among themselves Sunday or Monday night.

He insisted that the pirates were not interested in the weapons and had no plans to sell them to Islamist insurgents battling Somalia's weak transitional government. “Somalia has suffered from many years of destruction because of all these weapons,” he said. “We don't want that suffering and chaos to continue. We are not going to offload the weapons. We just want the money.”

Sugule said the pirates were asking for $20 million in cash. “We don't use any other system than cash.” But he added that they were willing to bargain. “That's deal making,” he said.

Piracy in Somalia is a highly organized, lucrative, ransom-driven business. This year, pirates have hijacked more than 25 ships, and in many cases, they were paid million-dollar ransoms to release them. The juicy payoffs have attracted gunmen from across Somalia, and the pirates are thought to number in the thousands.

Pirates have released a second Malaysian tanker hijacked near Somalia in exchange for a ransom, the ship owner told The Associated Press yesterday. Malaysian shipping line MISC Berhad said the palm oil tanker, MT Bunga Melati 2, was freed Monday, two days after its first vessel was released.

Chairman Hassan Marican said a ransom was paid for both vessels but declined to reveal the amount. He slammed Malaysian media for speculating that a total ransom of $4 million was paid.

All 79 crew members, including 14 Filipinos, on both ships are safe but are traumatized and will undergo counseling, he said.

Somalia's piracy industry started 10 to 15 years ago, Somali officials said, as a response to illegal fishing. Somalia's central government imploded in 1991, casting the country into chaos.

With no patrols along the shoreline, Somalia's tuna-rich waters were soon plundered by commercial fishing fleets from around the world. Somali fishermen armed themselves and turned into vigilantes by confronting illegal fishing boats and demanding they pay a tax.

By the early 2000s, many of the fishermen had traded in their nets for machine guns and were hijacking any vessel they could catch: sailboat, oil tanker, U.N.-chartered food ship.

“It's true that the pirates started to defend the fishing business,” Mohamed said. “And illegal fishing is a real problem for us. But this does not justify these boys to now act like guardians. They are criminals. The world must help us crack down on them.”

The United States and several European countries, in particular France, have been talking about ways to patrol the waters together. The United Nations is considering something like a maritime peacekeeping force.

Sugule said the pirates needed the $20 million to protect themselves from hunger.